Is Your Back Pain Just Arthritis?

Is Your Back Pain Just Arthritis?

This 3-year study into back pain across the globe published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet reports that our current treatments for back pain are lacking in evidence of effectiveness. See article below

LANCET ARTICLE low back pain

This research paper [below] shows how the Psoas Major Muscle exerts huge compression and sheer forces on our low spine resulting in crumpling and severely shearing the lumbar spine.

Anatomy and biomechanics of psoas major

I hear from clients who come to me that they have been told by their GP that their back pain is just arthritis.

My Father was always telling me to pull my shoulders back when I was little. I was not sure why he was telling me that, but it only lasted for the time he was there anyway, and then I reverted back to my normal posture.

It was not until many years later and as I was becoming a physiotherapist, that I realized how important our posture is and its impact on our body when it’s not good.

To prevent back pain and achieve good posture we first need good body alignment

You cannot change bad posture by doing just those things alone and you cannot change bad posture by just sitting up straight or holding your shoulders back or even wearing a shoulder brace. Incorrect Posture will inevitably lead to back pain.

Our postural muscles are where bad alignment starts and also back pain.

So, you need to start with your postural muscles. Our postural muscles are our Psoas muscles, these are the most powerful and strategically placed muscles for creating all sorts of misalignment in our body.

Our postural muscles are constantly under compression forces from sitting

To prevent back pain with good posture, you first have to have fluid Psoas muscles and then be mindful of your alignment and what you are sitting on. It’s the act of sitting that starts off bad posture. Maybe my Father should have said don’t sit if you don’t need to, rather than “sit up straight!”

Our Posture, in other words, our alignment in our body, is critical to keeping pain away. Think of the alignment in a car that when out, starts a whole cascade of events in your car like wearing out the tyres and affecting the steering. So it is with our body, if our pelvis is tilted and our spine does not have a level foundation then that is what starts our spine to not working optimally, leading to back pain and sciatica.

Your spine’s curves

A healthy back has three natural curves: